In the following discussion, certain articles and methods are described for background and introductory purposes. Nothing contained herein is to be construed as an “admission” of prior art. Applicant expressly reserves the right to demonstrate, where appropriate, that the articles and methods referenced herein do not constitute prior art under the applicable statutory provisions.
Nucleic acid-based genetic methods for identification of cells and microorganisms have greatly reduced the time and labor involved in clinical diagnosis. Such methods include, for example, nucleic acid hybridization (e.g., Southerns/microarrays and slot blots), nucleotide sequencing, nucleic acid cloning techniques, restriction digestion of nucleic acids and nucleic acid amplification. In particular, nucleic acid amplification has provided means for rapid, sensitive and specific identification of cells or viruses by amplification and detection of specific genes or gene fragments. Standard techniques for detection of specific nucleotide sequences generally employ nucleic acids that have been purified away from cellular proteins and other cellular contaminants.
With the development of molecular biology, the number of samples that need to be handled by clinical diagnosis and biological experiments is also growing rapidly. Automated sample processing and reaction equipment has been developed and is widely used, for example, for extracting nucleic acids from clinical samples. Automated methods that use beads to extract nucleic acid are maturing, and have seen increasingly widespread application. Existing devices for this purpose typically require various steps such as bead collection, bead release, and bead transfer. The present disclosure addresses some of the issues with existing methods and devices.